Sunday, February 14, 2016

On August 21, 2013 rockets with sarin gas were launched into rebel held territory in Ghouta, near Damascus. The sarin gas attack killed many people. The death toll was as high as 1,729 people according to the Free Syrian Army. The victims and the opposition said the Assad regime did it. The Assad regime denied this.

But some pro-Assad people on social media and elsewhere didn't get the memo to deny that their side was responsible for it.

In Facebook groups -- like the News Network of the Syria Armed
Forces -- which are the most important media war zone in Syria, an
"important statement by the army and the armed forces" was issued under
the banner of Bashar Assad: "Today we attacked a number of terrorist
hideouts with heavy weapons. To protect the civilian population,
chemical weapons were also used." This request was posted below the
statement: "Bomb them even more severely, Mr. President, with chemicals
and other things, because they don't deserve to live!" The Martyrs of
the Homeland, also on Facebook, reported that "more than 500 were killed
today in a cleansing operation." One of Assad's relatives wrote that
Bashar should fire off even more chemical weapons, and a supporter from
Latakia made the same request. After the massacre, militia fighters
handed out sweets, a traditional way of celebrating joyous events in the
Middle East, to pedestrians in the Mezze 86 neighborhood in the western
part of Damascus, a stronghold of Alawite members of the security
forces.
Every audience is told what it is supposed to hear.

Regime supporters
are given reports of victory while other countries are fed denials. So
far, all sides have been generally satisfied with this approach. No
matter how spurious the denials from Damascus are, so far they have
managed to push events into a controversial gray zone. (Hans Hoyng and Christoph Reuter, "Assad's Cold Calculation," Der Spiegel, August 26, 2013.)

The following interview (Democracy Now, August 23, 2013,) was also mentioned in regards to that most frightful atrocity. The victims deserve justice.

Tragically the Syrian people continue to suffer from the catastrophe imposed upon them by the Assad regime's campaign of violence and repression. A recent UN report noted that the Assad regime's treatment of prisoners may amount to extermination.

In recent days many Syrians have fled for their lives from Aleppo in the wake of severe bombardment and advances by the Assad regime. This will further contribute to the ongoing refugee crisis.

The Syrian people deserve to live in peace and safety. It is just so terrible.

If You are new please read this

Hand in Hand for Syria

Keep Somalia's Remittances Open

I encourage readers to sign this petition from Oxfam calling upon the U.S. government to let the Somali diaspora continue to send remittance to their loved ones in Somalia.

Moves have been made to shut down such remittances from Somalis in America. Many Somalis need these remittances. The remittances to Somalia are larger than foreign aid contributions and are a lifeline to these people caught in trouble and turmoil.

It is true that HWA said that some Eastern European states would break away from Moscow's orbit and join the European Empire he said would arise at any moment. But he never talked of the Soviet Union collapsing. He did not teach that. Also he portrayed the rise of the European Empire to be far quicker then what has actually happened. In Mystery of the Ages Christ was supposed to return by 2005 at the most.

So assertions that the fall of the Berlin Wall somehow prove that HWA was right is just complete nonsense spread by people who, for whatever reason, are still in denial that HWA was a false prophet who merely talked out of his own "human reasoning".

Truth about Roderick C. Meredith

What sort of man is he? A man who could say things like this.

"Mr. Armstrong has reminded us again that we are to disfellowship any members who attend GTA's [Garner Ted Armstrong's] campaigns, church services or other meetings. Some of our weaker members apparently do not realize that this man is in direct rebellion against God and His government! We must not allow them, or ourselves, to rationalize about this matter, to try to "help the underdog," or in any other way lend support to one whose gross immorality, whose long standing "play acting" and hypocrisy, and whose direct insubordination to the Government of God has long been and is now a source of confusion and DIVISION among God's people. So, as per Mr. Armstrong's instruction, I charge and exhort every one of you faithful ministers of the living Christ to explain this in no uncertain terms to your members, to warn them about this cause of division and then to disfellowship any who consort with GTA or any of his fellows." (Roderick C. Meredith, Pastor's Report, May 21, 1979, pp. 1-2.)

David Robinson on Roderick C. Meredith

"During the ten years I have been an employee of the Worldwide Church, you have been poorly spoken of by most of the ministers and employees I have known. I vividly remember the absolute unbounded glee that was openly expressed by a good number of respected men in the church when you were first "shanghaied." [In 1972.] I could begin by naming names, which I am sure would shock you. I was one of the few who stood, where possible, for you. Your tenure as superintendent of ministers, as I believe the office was then called, was looked on as nightmarish. While you held office during the years of growth, most of those whom I know gave you very little credit for that growth. Almost everyone whom I know, whether they be former friends of yours, or continuing foes, recalls insensitive and terrible things you have done. Without exception, at least among my acquaintances, they all credit you with an unbridled lust for power and list you as one who is willing to pay the price of gaining that power, no matter what. I have, through many of the last few years, believed you had principles you would not violate. Many a man of experience in the church assured me of my error. Events have proven me wrong and them right. Mr. Armstrong has himself been widely quoted as saying of you that you were so righteous that you were so "righteous you were unrighteous." " (David Robinson, Herbert Armstrong's Tangled Web, Chapter 16, p. 207.)

Of course it is impossible for me to personally verify these assertions but people deserve to know what this knowledgeable man had to say about him.